The tale of cute socks and the 'not' space daisies
by The Hellsing Alchemist
Summary: It all started with a trip to a planet inhabitated by talking plants. What could possibly go wrong? Well, when the Doctor and Clara are involved, pretty much everything.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I'm still working on my other fics but I had this idea for a while and after seeing a really cute fanart called "Say something nice" by lufidelis on DeviantArt this little story simply happened. XD**

 **Well, this is my first Doctor Who fic but I hope you like it. ^-^**

 **Disclaimer: Doctor Who and its characters belong to the BBC.**

 **The tale of cute socks and the "not" space daisies**

The rain kept falling relentlessly and she watched as the water lazily dripped down into large puddles at her feet while her eyebrows furrowed in a clear sign of annoyed resignation. That place was cold, damp and gloomy; it looked very much like a normal forest though the sky seemed to change colors every hour or so. Right now it had this rather appalling green that did little to lift her humor. As if reading her mind and disliking her criticism, a thunder roared above and the rain got twice as heavy.

"Geez, is the sky sentient too?" Clara exclaimed while contorting her neck to look up as she was currently taking shelter under a massive tree. "I'm sorry! Green is a lovely color!" It felt silly to apologize to the sky, but she was way beyond the point of questioning how certain things worked and she was certainly not dressed to face a deluge. Surprisingly, after two or three flashes, the rain diminished considerably. "…Thanks!"

Luckily, she brought an umbrella this time around. Actually, a few hours ago she was stuck in the middle of what looked like the flood of the century at Coal Hill. It was a bleak rainy day and no one seemed very eager to brave the raging storm outside, besides, the traffic was jammed and the few who ventured outside were not going anywhere so soon.

It was then that the Doctor showed up waving his arms in an exasperated fashion that always made him look like an angry disheveled owl, because he had just wasted a good hour or so sitting alone in her room when he had planned a whole new trip and she managed to be late just because of a silly weather mishap, to which she replied rolling her eyes and speckling him with her drenched coat as she marched inside the TARDIS. _"So says the man with a time machine that once took 3 weeks to bring her coffee."_

And yet, despite the Doctor's constant and patented Scottish speech that she was cluttering his TARDIS with her useless human trinkets (which was rather funny since Clara was pretty sure he did have _rooms_ filled with the equivalent of Time Lord trinkets hidden somewhere in there) she was glad that she brought her own umbrella this time. And as a matter of fact, he should be glad too. She was probably going to remind him of that particular detail later.

After all, taking care of an over 2000 years, grumpy and sometimes unbelievably childish Doctor was almost her main job now. However, having to deal with a really grumpy Doctor fighting a cold and a runny nose was a whole level of trouble that _no one_ in the universe would be able to handle, himself included.

And that thought brought her back to the current incident: she was standing in the middle of some unknown trail in an alien planet, in the rain, no TARDIS around and dragging an unconscious and surprisingly heavy Doctor perched over her shoulders and barely balancing the umbrella in her right hand.

Well, to be honest he wasn't that heavy, just exceptionally gangly. She was relatively short compared to the Doctor so carrying him already looked quite ridiculous by itself but it worked and Clara just wanted to find somewhere dry. At first she was tempted to drag him back to the TARDIS by his legs, it would be quicker that way but that wouldn't have worked, with the rain and mud it would only succeed in making the man look like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

" _So much for a light stroll in the 'harmless' planet of the talking plants."_ By now Clara was quite surprised that the local flora didn't grow fangs and legs and chased them down the planet too. Looking back at their previous adventures so far, this was a lucky day by their standards.

With a sigh, Clara tried to find a more comfortable position to rest but to no avail. As soon as she did that she felt his arms slide from her shoulders and his weight cast the umbrella aside for a few seconds before she caught him again, which was enough to drench both of them in cold alien water.

"You know Doctor, you're not helping very much right now." She told him as she shook him back into place and for a moment Clara swore the man mumbled something back at her when his chin collided with her shoulder. She blamed his long legs for making this way clumsier than it should.

And she also had this sinking feeling that on the next morning her back was going to give her hell for pulling this sort of stunt.

"Now that's an interesting sight." Said a vaguely familiar voice not very far from her in a singing tone. It was not a mutant walking fanged plant, but for a moment Clara felt that one would be a better scenario than what she was about to see. Turning around with an ever growing sense of doom, she felt a knot in her stomach as another figure approached, one who was just the same as she remembered from their previous encounter in Skaro.

"I think I might be repeating myself but shouldn't you be, you know, _dead_?" her tone was not exactly friendly as the memories of the last fiasco with the Daleks the woman pulled on her were still too fresh in her mind, but Clara knew better than to provoke Missy too much. At least, that's what her brain concluded; her mouth seemed to think otherwise.

"I simply have no idea of what you're talking about." The woman casually replied while twirling her own umbrella as she splashed the puddles of water around. There was something unnerving in her mischievous expression.

"Okay, who am I kidding, stupid question." Clara looked down as she took a long deep breath and prayed to have enough patience and self control to not chuck the closest heavy thing she could get at Missy but she soon dismissed the idea. The Doctor wouldn't be too happy if he woke up later only to find a concussion after colliding headfirst with an old psychotic friend that simply refused to stay dead.

"Oh, someone's got a temper. You should watch that, you'll get all wrinkly before the time. Now that would be a funny thing, wouldn't it?" said Missy with the usual smirk as she leaned down a bit beside Clara. "What happened to the sleepy head now?" she asked, poking the Doctor's face.

"Missy, what are you up to?" avoiding her question and putting some distance between them, Clara cut to the point. Dealing with Missy was like dealing with a walking and maniacal trap, you can't stay too close but can't run away either.

"Well, the usual being evil routine and disintegrating stuff my dear. I was just passing by, ruining some gardens, terrible sense of style around here you see. I think I might have been doing them a favor!" She replied with such deadpan sincerity that Clara almost believed it. Almost. "But then this rain started and sent them all scurrying back to their burrows or whatever it's called so it all got a bit dull after a while."

"And you want me to believe that you were just casually stomping around this place when you bumped into us?" If Clara could raise her eyebrows any higher than now, they would be crossing the stratosphere. "And what's up with the whole gardening hate, is that a thing on Gallifrey or something?" for a start, if it wasn't for the Doctor's apparent scuffle with gardens, they wouldn't be in this situation and he probably wouldn't have acquired a new peripheral indentation on his skull.

At that thought, Clara noticed there was something odd going on there. She was struggling to keep herself out of the rain but so far it had been a lost cause. Missy, on the other hand was perfectly and infuriatingly dry. Not even a single hair out of place. And her makeup was equally intact, which reminded Clara that she was probably looking like some sort of melted panda by now.

"Is that what I'm thinking it is?" She asked, staring at the seemingly innocent umbrella with both curiosity and suspicion.

For a moment or so, Missy stopped skipping around with one final splash that certainly was going to leave mud stains all over Clara's pants.

"Really!" she looked almost offended waving her arms around in a way that somehow resembled the Doctor's own perplexed gestures. "Seriously, what else did you think it could be?"

"Oh I don't know, for all that I know it could be the new army of Cyber-Dalek thingies disguised as tacky garment pieces."

There was this sudden unnatural silence between them as if even the raindrops were holding their breath.

"Don't give me ideas my dear, I can make that work." Missy winked at her with an evil spark in her blue eyes and Clara internally cursed her own wild imagination, somehow she felt she just doomed some galaxy with her witty remarks.

"So…" she tried to change the subject as it was dangerous enough to linger around the deranged Time Lady, let alone fuel her with more destructive ideas. "Let me guess, it's the 'bigger on the inside' technology again? How does that even work?" Clara hoped that if Missy was remotely like the Doctor, she wouldn't miss the chance to flaunt her knowledge to an audience.

Judging by her lopsided grin Clara's assumption wasn't too far from the truth.

"Wider underneath would be a better statement but yeah, pretty close. Dimensions, it's like a second nature for us. " At that Missy looked at her with an ominously worried face while offering said item. "Wanna try? I fear you might shrink even more if you keep at it with that pathetic human thing."

"Nah, I think I'm fine here. In the rain." She replied, trying to sound respectful while fighting the urge of replying to the clear stab at her height. "Drenched to the bones but very much alive, thank you." Clara added in a low whisper.

"Oh look, it stopped." Said the woman so suddenly that Clara jumped back at the exclamation. That didn't look like a hostile planet but she looked around a bit alarmed, as if waiting to find something creeping around them ready to strike.

"Stopped? What stopped?" Clara blinked a few times while trying to keep up with Missy's unsteady line of thoughts. Glancing up, the sky had cleared but it changed colors again. This time, a radioactive orange glared back at them.

"The rain, silly!" she yelped slightly as Missy poked her with the now closed umbrella with way more force than it was needed. "How does the Doctor deal with you, doesn't he just implode out of frustration? No wonder he grew these eyebrows."

At first Clara tried to keep a safe distance but Missy closed the gap with a quick stride and stared at the Doctor's face with a thoughtful expression.

"By the way, did he name them yet?" Clara watched in confusion as the other woman tapped his left eyebrow and the unconscious man kind of wriggled away from her touch on his own. "We should call this one Angry, it's always the first one to flare up when he goes all Scottish."

As bizarre as giving names to Time Lord's eyebrows was, Clara was sort of inclined to agree with her on that matter. But now she had a more urgent matter at hand: getting them both out of there, preferably alive.

"Oh, I will be sure to let him know we now have a new pet name for them." She took a few steps as a test. Missy just tilted her head and stared. "Well, uh… I think that's my leave then!" Now that she would be able to actually see where she was going, Clara had hopes she could reach the TARDIS, it wasn't that far anyway.

It wasn't the best plan in the universe and so many things could go terribly wrong given the circumstance but since the Doctor was still out cold and showed no signs of waking either, there were not many options at hand. She covered quite a distance without being fired into oblivion so apparently her strategic retreat worked.

There was only a tiny little problem: Missy was following her.

" _Just ignore her. Keep going, don't look back and maybe she will go away."_ She repeated in her mind hoping that it would really work. It would be too much luck for one day to get away so easily but she was willing to try.

"You know, there is something… how should I say it…"after a few minutes in silence, Missy decided it was time to pester her again. "I think we are _missing_ something here." Clara continued her pace, determined to not look back. "I wonder where he got those socks, who knew the Doctor was a fan of such silly little things."

Now that single statement somehow won over Clara's resolution and her curiosity didn't help either. "How do you know what kind of socks he's wearing?"

Instead of replying, Missy only pointed down and she followed her gaze.

" _Kittens?"_ Clara thought, eyeing his left foot, now bare except for what seemed to be (TARDIS) blue socks with little kittens all over it. She knew his fashion sense had always been questionable but things were taking quite a funny turn lately. She made a note to remember that later, it would be amusing to see his explanations.

"How do you do that with your eyes? It's sort of hypnotic." She heard Missy ask, now staring at her with a distracted expression. And Clara didn't like that almost predatory grin on her face that followed either.

" _Must have dropped it along the way."_ she mentally searched for any memory of where the lost shoe might be but she was not going back, not with her current company still following her every step.

"It was half an hour ago, to be exact, when you slipped over a root on the trail." At first she wondered if Missy could read minds, it wouldn't really surprise her if that was the case. However, the answer came with deadly accuracy. Too accurate to be just a guess.

"Wait a minute!" She turned around and faced Missy, now her temper was rising to a dangerous level. "How do you know when…"Clara narrowed her eyes at the other woman who didn't even try to look innocent. "You found it."

"Maybe."

"Missy!"

"Oh, you're no fun at all. Of course I found it! See?" and then she practically materialized said shoe from God's know where and waved it around. "Honestly, I was just passing time, it would be stupid to leave without the other one anyway."

It was then that it hit Clara and she quickly looked down again. To her dismay, now both of the Doctor's shoes were missing. _"Oh, he's going to grow a whole bunch of grey hairs when he sees this…"_

"How did you even- " she never had time to finish her question as a flash and the sound of hysterical laughter filled the air and Missy was gone. The cold wind blew a few leafs in the air and Clara just stood there in the middle of the trail in utter disbelief. "What the hell just happened?"

For a moment, Clara swore the closest tree seemed to move its branches up like it was shrugging in response to her question.

* * *

Later at the TARDIS

"… the Sontaran army spent the night kicking me again after that match of…" Was the first thing the Doctor said as he regained consciousness with a jolt.

"Sontarans?" Clara asked back, confused. It happened before; she noticed he had this strange habit of raving about that particular race every time he woke from a shock. Unfortunately, what match he was talking about or why they were even kicking him was going to remain a mystery.

His voice was a bit hoarse and his eyes were still unfocused as he found her at his side. "And why am I so wet Clara?" The Doctor finally asked as he sat up straight in the chair he was currently resting, eyes blinking like a confused owl at the bright lights around.

He tried to get up but his legs were not properly coordinated yet and she had to hold him before the man crashed again on the floor.

"You were clobbered by the owner of the flower shop thing." She explained, crossing her arms as he sat again. By now Clara had already changed into a new set of clean clothes. "I tried to get you back here with at least some dignity but then all of a sudden the sky fell down on us and I dragged you as well as I could but your overly long legs got in the way."

"Oh." He rubbed his forehead as if remembering the incident. Then he did a double take as he registered her last words. "You carried me back?!" Clara shrugged as he stared in disbelief at her for a while. "And it wasn't my fault this time, the TARDIS translation was affected by the unusual electric properties of the atmosphere and kept confusing my words."

"I think you were meowing at some point." She added with a giggle as she remembered his short lived attempt of conversation with the native inhabitants and he twitched visibly. Slowly, he got up and rested his back against the TARDIS console. Some sort of angry hissing sound came from the control panel and the Doctor flinched a bit.

"Ok, ok, I might have confused part of their dialect. It happens sometimes" He said as if apologizing to the ship. "In my defense, he was not the most literate specimen I encountered."

His walk was still uneven but the Doctor paced around as he flapped his soaked coat seeming annoyed as he reluctantly took it off. He slid a hand through his messy hair and verified it was equally wet.

"I think it was a she, actually." Said Clara following his steps, just in case he slipped on the wet trail he was leaving all around.

"Now I need to change these clothes." He went on, barely registering what she had said. Then he suddenly halted his march. "What did you say?"

"The owner of that garden." She continued.

"Well, that explains a few things." the Doctor seemed to analyze the extent of the damage on his head as he resumed his pacing. "Mighty heavy hand she had. And poisonous too. No wonder it knocked me out for so long."

"Right, now sit still Doctor, you just recovered. I'm getting dizzy by just looking at you darting around the room." she used her best teacher tone and the effect was almost immediate and he sat back on the stairs leading up to the upper floor. Huffing and mumbling as he did but he obeyed.

"I didn't like her garden." He pouted while crossing his arms against his chest looking more than ever like a grumpy kid. The fact that he was still dripping wet only contributed to make the sight even more comical.

"Yeah, you've made your point _very_ clear Doctor." Clara pointed and tried to hold the impulse to laugh. She sat beside him and poked the bump on his head, he winced. "The big bad Time Lord made the poor space daisies cry until they sobbed."

"They were not 'space daisies' Clara." He stressed the word space as if it was offensive. "First, those were not even daisies, why would be there daisies on this planet? And they were not in space. Definitely not in space. Your use of terminology is rather- Ach!" he growled as she touched his head again, this time a bit more gently.

"Sorry." She apologized and he slowly nodded once he realized she only meant to massage the sore spot. "We should do something about this Doctor, or else it will look like you're sprouting a second head by mitosis." Her remark got an exasperated look from him. "Is that a Time Lord thing, the gardening rage? I'm starting to see a pattern."

"What do you mean?" for the first time, she saw worry in his eyes.

"Actually, we kind of had company out there but it all ended in a rather harmless way. I think." It was useless to keep that detail a secret; he was bound to discover something was off as soon as he looked down to his feet. It was rather strange how he didn't seem to notice until now he was walking around without his shoes.

"Clara, I don't like that tone. It usually means you're trying to make something dangerous, and possibly very deadly, sound less threatening but it only makes it sound even more aggravating." And there was 'Angry' again, as Missy had named. Now that she thought about it, his left eyebrow did look a bit more cross than his right one.

"Missy."

One word and it felt like she had dropped a bomb inside the TARDIS. His expression changed from suspicion to horror in matter of seconds. Clara could almost see his brain short circuit as he fought to voice all of his concerns at once but nothing came out.

"Missy!" he finally repeated, getting up so quickly that he almost slipped down a step. "What was she doing here? Did she do something to you?" he was now walking around her as if to assure she was not missing an arm or a leg.

"Doctor, I'm fine. Apparently she just ran off with your shoes."

"S-she what?!" he stuttered, not quite sure he heard it right.

"Your shoes." She repeated more clearly, holding him still by his shoulders. He was already halfway of scanning her with his glasses just to be sure nothing was out of place. "Missy found one and then snatched the other when I was not looking."

For the first time, he stopped moving around and looked down at himself. His shoes were indeed gone.

"But why?" Clara shrugged looking as clueless as him. "I liked those." The Doctor mumbled looking almost hurt. "She can't possibly intend to use them, can she?" judging by his expression, the idea of Missy running around wearing his things seemed horrifying in his mind.

"Don't ask me. For all we know she could be plotting to build the next weapon to destroy worlds with one of your shoes as battery and keeping the other one to hit you on the head as she sings." he also found the idea absurd but didn't protest. That sort of silly madness could very well fit in with Missy's overall behavior.

Once he calmed down enough, Clara thought it was safe enough to ask something.

"So, what do we do now?" he looked down at her with a concerned expression. "I mean, we can't be sure she's not up to something but it seems she was just bored. That and we're probably the first two names in her list of 'people I should bother for no reason'."

It took a few seconds until his serious face cracked and he let a tiny smile show.

"Hm, I don't know." He looked around. "I'm pretty sure they are definitely gone now." Somehow, she knew he was going to mourn those shoes for days. "Any suggestions?"

"For now, I just want to find a good warm place to rest my feet and my back." At that point, the Doctor scratched his head looking a bit embarrassed, knowing quite well that she could have hurt herself carrying him on her own.

"Back to your home then?" he asked looking back at her as he pressed a few buttons. She nodded back in approval and pulled the closest lever.

"Tea and biscuits. Sounds any good?" she ventured, joining his side as he watched the panels in front of him.

"Good enough for me, yes. Oh wait!" he suddenly exclaimed as the TARDIS landed. Clara looked at him and for a moment he looked a bit paler than normal. She remembered his earlier talk about waiting for her with nothing else to do. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Doctor… did you break something?" he was sweating now, looking very much like a cat that got caught in the act.

"No. Not literally. I mean, it's a matter of perspective." He waved his hands for emphasis as he talked but it did very little to make his excuses sound more convincing. "What I'm trying to say is that your washing machine clearly developed a fault, I tried to fix it. Simple as that." He said in his most confident voice. "But apparently, it didn't like it." That last bit though came out almost like a whisper.

Clara took a deep breath and counted up to twelve. (Counting up to ten seconds to calm herself didn't work, eleven was enough for a while but now she found twelve was the right amount) She saw him tinkering with her appliances before, and at the time she thought the angry burn he received from the iron and the electric shock from the TV would keep him away of such things for a while.

That possibly meant this wasn't going to be the last time either.

"I've seen worse things." But that didn't stop her from giving him a warning glare. "I just hope I won't find the whole house burned to the ground when I open that door. So, why the kittens Doctor?"

"Hm?" he had closed his eyes for a moment, as if expecting a scolding. Peeking one eye open and deeming it was safe enough, the Doctor looked down at his feet. "They're comfortable. You don't like them?"

"Actually, I do like them." She said grinning a bit at his slightly flushed face. "I just didn't know you liked cats so much. You are not hoarding cats in here when I'm not looking, are you Doctor?"

"…No…" His answer had this strange pause to it that almost made it sound like he was not telling the whole truth but she decided against questioning him further on that subject. At least for now.

"Ok, then off to the shower with you." The Doctor shot her a quizzical glance as she pushed him across the room. "You don't want to catch some space virus and spread it on Earth, do you?"

He opened his mouth to protest against the use of space term again but then he stopped. As if by some divine intervention, his whole thesis about her inadvertent choice of words was replaced by an abnormally loud sneeze. That seemed to settle the matter once and for all.

"You jinxed me, Clara." His face was so serious that she couldn't help but laugh at his mortification.

"No I did not. And now you see what I meant. Go on, off you go!" She patted his back and the Doctor finally seemed to remember how to use his legs and walk. "And put some dry clothes too!"

"Clara?" The Doctor called after a while as he leaned back in at the door leading to the corridors.

"What?" After opening the TARDIS door and confirming she still had a home outside, she was just gathering her things when she looked back at him again. He had this big grin on his face that looked so much alike the ones Missy displayed not long ago.

"You look like you're melting."

"Doctor… shower."

"All right, boss." He replied with a distinct laugh when she tossed his drenched coat back at him.

 **A/N: It was really fun writing this, maybe I could do a series of short stories someday. As I wrote it, two songs served as inspiration, Precious by Depeche Mode and Volcano by U2 (for some odd reason, they remind me so much of these characters, must be the lyrics XD).**

 **Thank you very much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this story! ;)**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hello again people! First of all, thank you so much for the lovely reviews, they really made my day! And as thanks, this will now be a series of short stories, I hope you like them. =) (next chapter may take a while though since I'm working on the next chapter of Going Home)**

 **So, here we go again. ;)**

 **Disclaimer: Doctor Who and its characters belong to the BBC.**

 **A night without sleep and a bouncing colorful invasion**

That day had been exhausting.

Clara had lots of essays, tests and so many other things from her students gathered from over the week that it all formed this ever growing pile of unfinished work resting on her table, threatening to collapse over her at any moment. So on that Saturday afternoon, she decided it was time to be brave and face the challenge: finish grading all those things so she could have a well deserved day off on Sunday.

Actually, it was really simple. She could do that. With enough coffee, patience and determination she was pretty sure it would be over in no time. For someone who faced so many adventures through time and space it would be easy. Yep, piece of cake.

And yet, it was already midnight and at least one third of all the mess of scattered papers was still staring at her, daring Clara to continue. Disheveled and slightly sore for being hunched over her notes for so long, she stared back in sheer indignation for a while and then she threw her arms up in surrender. _"Ok, maybe I miscalculated things a bit."_ She finally admitted.

Usually Clara didn't let things get so out of control but her last week had been all over the place with all school activities, visiting her dad and grandma, and then dealing with Courtney Woods. She didn't know what possessed the girl this time, but she suddenly developed this habit of asking questions about the Doctor in the middle of her classes. Some of the kids already knew him since he popped around every now and then and a few brave ones would often nag him for help with their studies, to which he agreed after much grumbling and bickering but Clara knew he actually enjoyed the attention.

Thing is, Courtney dropped the bomb when casually asking if after all this time the Doctor ever asked her on a date. She probably meant that as a joke to annoy her but, as it was expected, rumors grew exponentially after that and they spread like wildfire. Needless to say Clara spent the whole week trying to sort things out as every living soul in that school kept asking her about that story. Looking on the bright side, the Doctor didn't appear at Coal Hill that week and she made a mental note to warn him to keep some distance for a while until the rumors died down a bit.

All hell would break loose if he showed up running after her while holding something that resembled one of her dresses on fire again.

Recently, he had this ongoing vendetta with her washing machine (to Clara's surprise, it was indeed malfunctioning as he had stated previously) and despite her pleas to leave it alone until she bought a new one, the Doctor seemed bent on fixing it for her. It obviously didn't work as planned and now they had this washing machine with a 50% chance of turning into an incinerator every time you switched it on.

With a long sigh, Clara rubbed her eyes and got up, deciding she needed some sleep. Maybe if she rested for a few hours she could be up in time to finish her markings and still have some free time later. Yawning and dragging her feet, she changed into her pajamas and practically fell on her bed.

Her moment of peace didn't last more than 2 seconds.

As soon as she closed her eyes, Clara heard a buzzing sound coming from her side. Groaning, she opened one eye with reluctance and saw her cell phone ringing. The clock next to it showed it was already 1:00 AM.

" _Who the hell would call me at this hour?"_ she thought while judging if it was worth to answer that call. It was kind of a rhetoric question since she had a pretty good guess but the Doctor usually didn't bother to call unless it was some emergency. And even then, for someone so ancient and (presumably) wise he also had his days when he came up with the _'Help me Clara, I'm dying here-oh wait, nope, I'm fine. Oh look, a jelly baby!_ ' sort of shenanigans.

In the end, she thought it was better to answer. It could be something serious this time.

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Clara picked up her phone and squinted at the bright screen trying to see who it was.

"Doctor." She said not really surprised. "You know, it's not even Sunday morning yet and as much as I enjoy your stories I think a few hours of sleep wouldn't be too much to ask." Clara said a bit groggy, it wasn't really his fault this time but sometimes he seemed to forget humans needed rest. And yet, no one replied. "Uh, hello? Doctor?" she tried again but nothing came out.

Finding that a bit weird she took a glance at the screen again and then she saw it was showing the ceiling of the TARDIS. Raising one eyebrow at the strange sight, Clara noticed some noise coming from the other side of the line. Someone was shouting and… running?

"Oi, let go off me! Stop! No, get down! Wait you little-" Then a loud crash was heard, the image shook with the impact and something that sounded like his guitar being smashed into the ground with a painful note followed. "Ouch…" Whatever he was doing in there, she could tell the Doctor just fell flat on the floor.

"Doctor, are you alright? What's happening?" she asked now feeling worried. Things were definitely lively in there. And there was this strange noise, like something was scurrying around. Shortly after that, she heard him uttering words that didn't make sense for her and the TARDIS promptly made some sort disapproving wheeze. "Doctor, are you swearing in Gallifreyan?"

The image shook again and a pair of light blue eyes appeared on the screen and blinked confusedly at her as the Doctor finally seemed to notice she was there. She guessed his own phone was lying on the floor all this time and only now he picked it up. "Clara?" he asked hesitantly while raising his eyebrows in perfect synchrony.

"What's happening in there? Is everything all right?" she heard the rustling sounds of him moving around, it seemed he was still lying on the ground when he found the phone. Apparently, now he switched the camera off.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Lovely day." Even if Clara was unable to see him now, she knew his anxious tone still betrayed his words. Clearly something was off and he was making quite a poor attempt to make it sound like a normal day. "Shouldn't you be doing your human resting time thing now? You were very adamant about that before. Actually, I thought you were going to bite me last time I tried to wake you at this hour."

At that last bit Clara frowned. Of course she didn't bite him, but who wouldn't be upset when it's 4 AM and this almost hyperactive alien comes tumbling down from his TARDIS because he had just learned a new song on his guitar. And he actually played the song right after that. (the whole neighborhood woke to the sounds of Hallo Spaceboy that morning)

"Doctor, it's past 1 AM and you just called me."

There was this awkward pause where both of them remained quiet for a few seconds. It was then that his brain seemed to kick in again.

"No I did not." Came his startled reply.

"Yes you did. It's either that or your cell phone simply decided to wake me up on its own accord." By now, she was almost giving up on the hopes of resting for that night.

"Oh." Clara heard him exclaim and then hasty footsteps followed. He was pacing around the TARDIS again and that meant he was thinking. "Sorry, I didn't notice. I think it fell when I was climbing on the panel to get those…" his words came all at once but then as if noticing he said too much, the Doctor stopped just as suddenly.

"You were what?" somehow, she couldn't imagine him trying to claw his way up the panel. Now she was really curious about why the Doctor was perched up there.

"Er… nothing, I rave."

"Doctor…" Clara insisted while massaging her forehead, sensing this was far from over.

Alerted by her tone, there was this long pause where he seemed to consider his words very, very carefully. "…Yes?"

"What did you do this time?" Now fully awake, Clara got up. She was sure he got himself into trouble again. The problem was to convince the man to explain what happened without physically squeezing it out of him.

"Clara, why you always think I did something? The universe is big, there's enough trouble going on without my help. I mean, it's the entropy, the amount of things happening with a penchant to go wrong is absolutely ridiculous!" his accent became more pronounced and his rs seemed to multiply when he got annoyed. "Hey you! Get down!" before she could even ask anything else, the call was suddenly cut.

Still confused about the whole thing Clara paced around caught between worrying about her friend being in some sort of danger and thinking what was the best plan. She could call him back but if he was busy with whatever it was going on in there he probably wouldn't pick up the call again. Her moment of doubt didn't last too long though.

Her phone made a beep and the screen announced a new message.

" **Areee youuu stillll in thereee?"** Clearly, it was from the Doctor and Clara just sat down and kept staring at it in astonishment. For quite some time she believed she would never live enough to see the day he would grasp the concept of using text messages. It was a phenomenal feat to get him a cell phone to begin with.

" **Yes. Doctor, you are texting! O_O"** she typed back, trying to hide her own smug smile imagining his expression as she deliberately sent the little surprised face.

What followed then was a sudden flood of beeps from her phone as his answers arrived in regular breaks. Later Clara had this conversation saved for posterity as a proof that indeed happened and was not a hallucination.

" **iokl cvlose yuopr winmdfows"** at first she thought he was simply pressing random letters but after a second look, he definitely was trying to say something .

" **Sorrrry, the buttttons are tinyy."** Typing too fast maybe?

" **Stuuupid buttons."** Yup, he totally had no idea of what he was doing but was getting the hang of it.

" **Ok, cclose your windows."** Now she started to worry.

" **Aand the doors."** She didn't like that one either.

" **I have fingers too, Claaaaaara!"** at the point Clara couldn't help but laugh at his reply to her previous statement. But then the final one arrived and she literally ended up in tears from laughing at his quirky writing style.

" **Whaaat does O_O even mean?"**

Still wiping the tears in her eyes from laughing so much, she followed his advice of closing doors and windows all around and waited. It wasn't long before the familiar sound of the TARDIS announced his arrival. Clara followed it until she found the blue box standing in the middle of her living room. Since the Doctor himself didn't appear, which was rather unusual, she knocked on the door and opened it.

Out of nowhere, dozens of multi-colored round fuzzy things popped out of the interior of the TARDIS and toppled over Clara like a bouncing fluffy wave. They hoped aimlessly around her flat with that same squeaky noise she heard earlier on the phone.

"A-ha, look at them running now! Didn't expect that did you?" he exclaimed right behind her. After the initial shock of the furry invasion going wild in her living room, Clara turned around to face him.

"Doctor, can you please tell me what's goin… Oh my God! What happened to you?!" Startled by her sudden outburst, the Doctor jumped a bit and blinked like a confused owl. He looked at himself and shrugged, still not understanding her reaction.

Despite the rather crumpled and dusty state of his clothes, what surprised her the most was his appearance. His hair was a mess of curly grey hair, even messier and a bit longer than she remembered, his face looked tired and was clearly showing signs of stubble, which was something she never saw before (not this much at least). And then there were these big gashes on his jumper that seemed to extend to all the layers he was wearing underneath it.

"Clara, your eyes, get them under control." He told her, leaning down to her level, still not realizing why she kept looking at him like that. "They're distracting me!"

"Doctor, what's up with the whole lost in the jungle look?" Clara asked, poking his chest which elicited a disgruntled growl from him as he twitched. "How long have you been gone since we traveled?"

"Hm, three days I think. Four, if you stretch a bit the different time zones and all that." He answered scratching his chin like it was unnerving him. Now he was darting all around the TARDIS looking for something. Clara could tell he seemed more restless than usual. "But that's not important. We have an infestation at hand and we need to gather them all in this." And then he dragged some odd looking glass container to her living room and set it on the floor, it looked quite heavy.

"Good! Good, that was my next suggestion. What are those anyway?" one of the strange creatures skipped past her and latched itself on the Doctor's exposed wrist and he flicked it back with the other hand. "Gremlins?"

"Gremlins?" he repeated looking up at her very much shocked as he raised one single eyebrow. "Nonsense Clara, gremlins don't even look like this! They have horns and a poisonous sting in their tails, burns through flesh in seconds. Nasty little things. " After that short description, Clara concluded that as much as she liked meeting fantastical creatures, she was not really eager to meet the _real_ gremlings so soon.

"So what are they?" he was avoiding the question and she wanted to know why. If they were dangerous the Doctor wouldn't be there chatting with her all this time, so that meant it was something else. And knowing him, it probably was something embarrassing.

They had this little staring contest. He fought bravely, that was a fact. However, the Doctor had a weakness and he was currently staring right into them at the moment so it was only a matter of time until he surrendered with a resigned sigh to the pair of brown eyes in front of him.

"Siphonaptera." He grumbled after avoiding his eyes from hers, still wondering if she ever knew how easy it was for her to break his resolution without even uttering a word.

"Meaning?" She heard that name before but couldn't quite place what it was. Clara insisted and she could swear his face started to change colors, a red tint staining his pale skin.

"Actually they are more like…" he struggled with the words and his arms kept waving around as if they had a will of their own as she cornered him against the TARDIS. "Fleas." He finally admitted, hiding his face in his hands.

Clara looked in bewilderment at all the little creatures popping around. _"Oh hell no…"_

"Fleas!" she exclaimed looking back to a very ashamed Time Lord that was trying his best to turn invisible by sheer concentration. "You mean my house is now infested with a bunch of furry space fleas!"

"Oh, there we go again with the space thing! I thought we got over that last time." That seemed to pull him out of his self imposed misery but Clara gave him a sharp glare that could cut a diamond in half. "Look, they are harmless to you."

The Doctor then took one of her hands in his and picked one blue and exceptionally disheveled creature and placed it on her hand. It stood there for a moment and then jumped back at him, lodging itself in his neck. That seemed to reassure her a bit and her expression softened.

"Why do they keep jumping on you?" she asked, picking the blue looking flea and tossed it inside the glass case. He seemed relieved to see she was not really upset with him.

"The main hypothesis is that this particular species is not adapted to human blood types, so they keep going after me instead." He explained as another one got stuck in his hoodie. "They have been driving me crazy for 3 whole days and the TARDIS wouldn't let me rest until I got rid of them all."

Now she finally understood why he looked so tired and unkempt.

"We better solve this soon then, you look terrible." She said in a humorous tone, reaching out to his hair and trying to tame the mane he had grown.

"Yeah, and this thing is itching like you wouldn't believe." He added while scratching his stubble even more vigorously than before.

"Do you even know how to shave Doctor?" he then looked at her with horror in his eyes as the realization finally dawned on him.

"I… tried once, long, long time ago. It didn't end quite well." The Doctor fidgeted as he probably remembered some clumsy event involving razors and many cuts.

"Yeah, I believe that. You're lucky you didn't chop your head off. C'mon, let's get these things back into that case." She said, patting his shoulder. "I need some rest and you look like you will drop dead at any moment."

Apparently, despite their best attempts, this was easier said than done. Her flat wasn't exactly made for people to run around chasing alien fleas, and she and the Doctor kept bumping on each other as they tried to gather them in the container. Half an hour later and only a few of them were caught.

"This… is not… working." Clara panted, as she fell back on her couch wiping the sweat on her forehead.

"I noticed." He added, leaning against the TARDIS, swatting at the fleas that occasionally jumped on him when he was not looking. "I think I rather face the Cybermen and the Autons… hell, even the Sontarans and their chanting all night long." Time Lords didn't need to sleep as much as humans but the Doctor was clearly reaching his limit by now. God knows for how long he has been awake.

Even exhausted, her brain formulated an idea as she watched him. "Ok, I have a better plan but I think you won't like it…"

"Clara, I believe I was through with not liking something three days ago when they started to pop around my TARDIS." Judging by the look in his eyes, he really meant it.

Without any further explanation, she pushed her table to the side to clear some space. "Right, you asked for it. Come here and sit down."

"What?" he eyed her and the spot she was pointing with suspicion.

"Sit down Doctor." She repeated. "And don't move."

Confused, he did as she said and stared back at her waiting for an explanation. "Now what?" one red flea jumped on his arm and he stared at her with both eyebrows raised in a perplexed fashion.

"Does it hurt?" If those were at least similar to common fleas, Clara just needed to be sure they were not causing him any harm.

"Not really, it's just itchy." He explained, still resisting the urge to move. "It's somewhat disturbing and very annoying too."

"Ok then." Clara quickly caught the flea and put it with the others in the glass case. "Now we wait." She concluded with a victorious grin.

"Clara!" Doctor exclaimed in dismay once he realized what she intended to do.

"Doctor, shut up. And sit still!" He started to protest and was almost standing up again when she placed both hands on his shoulders and he yielded to the touch, closing his mouth so quickly that he almost chopped his own tongue off. "It's working, look!"

In a few minutes, three more were caught.

However, the Doctor didn't seem very pleased. He kept moving his legs around all the time and she lost count of how many times he had crossed and uncrossed his arms huffing to himself only to repeat the process all over again.

"Nope, I can't do this. It was a good plan, I admit. But nope, can't work like this." He whined after a while, looking at her with a pleading expression. "You can't expect I will be able to sit still the whole night on my own."

"Doctor, calm down! We're almost done here. I know you can do this. Trust me." She knew staying still in the same place with nothing to occupy his mind wasn't easy for him, so she dragged the glass case closer and sat beside him. "Talk to me if you're bored, I'll be here until we finish with your fleas."

"But Clara…" his voice was getting even whinier as he made another pitiful attempt to dissuade her. "And those are not my fleas." He pouted once he realized what she had said. "You make me sound like some old flea-bitten dog or something."

"And why are they so fuzzy? I thought bugs weren't supposed to be that furry." She asked while examining another one as it wiggled in her hands. That question was lingering in her mind ever since he arrived.

"Must be some sort of side effect of their metabolism, absorbing some characteristics from the DNA of their current host." Every time another of those creatures landed on him, Clara quickly tossed it back in the glass container. The Doctor was visibly annoyed for being used as a decoy but his desperation to get rid of them was stronger than his ego.

At that observation, Clara started giggling so much that 'Angry' manifested its exasperation at her reaction.

"Oh my, you're lucky they only turned into fluffy balls. Can you imagine if they had sprouted eyebrows too?" and then Clara laughed even more at the mental image. At first the Doctor looked a bit hurt with the comparison, but he must have imagined the same thing as her because he soon laughed too.

"Yeah, that would be awful." He admitted with a shy smile. "Crossest fleas in the universe."

"What do you think it would happen if they bit me?" Once she regained control of her laughter, Clara questioned him about that possibility.

"Hm, I don't know, they are already short and round to begin with. Ow!" he yelped as she poked him through one of the big holes in his clothes. "What was that for?" Apparently, he was completely oblivious to the fact that he just compared her to a flea, but Clara knew this was just his way, she wasn't really angry.

After all this time she learned that his brain would come up with words but his mouth seemed to twist them into something weird most of the time. Sometimes he really meant to say nice things but it usually got lost in translation, quite literally.

A few more minutes passed by and the amount of captured creatures had grown considerably.

"Doctor, why the TARDIS was full of them?" Noticing he was starting to get restless again, she asked him another question to keep him distracted.

"Well… to be honest, I have a good guess." He told her as she picked another yellowy flea that landed on the top of his head. "I was taking care of a Cerberus I found abandoned by a bunch of smugglers. As usual, I took it back to its home planet. But then I fell down a cave on my way back to the TARDIS. The place was dark and dusty so it probably was a perfect nest for the Siphonaptera, they must have got stuck in my clothes and multiplied by the time I noticed them."

"Cerberus? As in the three headed dog from hell?" Clara asked him trying to picture what kind of creature he was talking about. Apparently, with his mind focused on his tale, his body seemed to stop twitching every minute or so.

"It's more like a cat, actually. A _very big_ cat that despite its scary appearance is as harmless as a Tivolian. Oh, and it only has two heads, not three." And then he went on telling her the details of his adventures. "Why are you smiling like that?" he asked after some time once he noticed the change in her expression.

"Look around, daft old man, we did it!" she exclaimed pointing to the full container where the colorful fleas were piled. He actually stood there for a whole minute gaping.

"H-how? When did it even-" the Doctor crawled around to inspect it more closely, as if to assure himself that they really made it.

With the infestation under control, they finally had time to relax and breathe properly. Clara took a glance out of the window and saw that it wouldn't take too long until the sun was up.

"Well, I think we survived." With a big yawn, she stretched her arms and her back. After all that mess, Clara just wanted to find her pillow and hibernate. "Do I get any thanks for helping with your fleas?"

That statement was enough to make the Doctor stop poking the glass and turn to look back at her with wide eyes. Apparently, he didn't think about that part.

"I have to dispose of them; maybe I should take them back to their planet." He got up and motioned for the TARDIS but his eyes then started to blink slowly, as if he were fighting to keep them open. Once the task at hand was over, his brain seemed to activate the 'shut down' mode. "And they are not mine! It's not like they have a label with my name on them."

"Are you sure you're ok?" Clara never saw him look so exhausted before.

"Of course I'm fine Clara!" his steps faltered as his legs seemed to disagree with him and he toppled over the table in a messy fall. "Correction: the ground here seems to be getting dangerously unstable, you should fix that."

"I don't think it's the ground Doctor." He was struggling to sustain his own weight as he tried to get up. Clara watched as he crawled his way up the couch where she was currently resting until he was sitting at her side. "I think it's past the time for you to rest."

"That would be good I think…" he started to slur his words a bit as he took one long breath, closing his eyes as he leaned his head back.

"Can I ask you something?" it took a few seconds until he moved again, this time he nodded without even opening his eyes. "Do you mind if I give you a hug?"

"…Why?" somehow he found enough strength to articulate that word, eyebrows frowning on their own at the mention of the word hug.

"Soon I will be pulling 24 hours without sleep, I'm too tired to drag myself all the way back to my room and you look comfortable enough." Lately he had been far more receptive to hugs and didn't squirm as much as before.

The Doctor sighed but didn't reply. For a moment, she thought that probably meant a no.

"Fair enough." He opened up his eyes to look at her and moved his arms aside, giving her enough space to move closer, which she did. "Thank you… Clara…" she heard him whisper as he returned the embrace a bit clumsily.

Suddenly, all 6 ft of Time Lord fell limp against her, his legs and arms sprawled like a star. Clara just stared at his silent form for a moment until she fully realized what just happened.

" _And then he's off like a lamp."_ She thought with a slight grin at his peaceful expression that showed the Doctor was already far into deep slumber. _"Good thing I don't receive many visitors on Sundays. But maybe I should put on a sign on the door reading 'Don't mind the Scottish guy with the attack eyebrows sleeping like a dead man on the couch; he bites' outside just to be sure."_ Clara giggled to herself as she closed her eyes and soon enough drifted into sleep, still holding him.

 **A/N: It's so much fun to write about these two adorable dorks. XD**

 **This time, I was listening to Midnight City by M83 and Driving Nowhere by Hadouken! as I wrote this.**

 **I hope you enjoyed this chapter and thank you for reading!**

 **See you! :)**


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